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RESEARCH AND PRACTICE: Douglas Houston, Paul Ong, Jun Wu, and Arthur Winer Proximity of Licensed Child Care Facilities to Near-Roadway Vehicle Pollution Am J Public Health 2006; 96: 1611-1617 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Proximity of rural child care facilities to diesel truck traffic

Kathleen Welch   (31 July 2007)

Proximity of rural child care facilities to diesel truck traffic 31 July 2007
Kathleen Welch, Assistant Prof. Dept. of Community Health/University of Maine at Farmington Send letter to journal: Re: Proximity of rural child care facilities to diesel truck traffic kathleen.welch{at}maine.edu Kathleen Welch	I read with great interest the article by Houston et al.(1). I agree with the authors that additional research is needed to estimate the potential childhood exposure to vehicle-related pollution in the child care microenvironment. As a community health professor in rural Franklin County, Maine, I would like to see more research on rural child care facilities, where there is a large volume of diesel truck traffic. Particulate matter (PM) from diesel truck traffic poses a serious threat for young children. Exposure to particulate matter has been linked to increased hospitalization for asthma attacks for children living within 200 meters (218 yards) of roads with heavy truck or trailer traffic (2). Maine is a mostly rural state, yet has one of the highest percentages of children with asthma in the country, 13.2% (3). The American Lung Association’s report: “State of the Air: 2007” assessed several rural counties in Maine, including neighboring Androscoggin County, which received a grade of “C” for PM-2.5 (2.5 micrometers or smaller in size) (4). The most recent data from Franklin County showed that in 1999 Franklin County ranked among “the dirtiest/worst 20% of all counties in the U.S." in terms of PM-2.5 emissions (5). It should be noted that there are also many gaps in the data on particle pollution in rural America. Coarse particulate matter (PM 10-2.5) has not been monitored in rural towns in the U.S. Furthermore, agriculture has been exempted from meeting the coarse particulate standard (6). In the largest town in Franklin County, Farmington, three of the five licensed child care facilities are located within 200 meters of one of the most traveled state routes in Maine, State Route 2. In 2006, data from the Maine Department of Transportation showed an Annual Average Daily Truck Volume (ADDT) of 15,260 vehicles passing one of the three child care facilities (7). Vehicle classification data, measured within five miles of the child care facility, showed that approximately 10% of all vehicles were diesel trucks, many carrying logs to nearby paper mills (7). As Houston et al. note, distance-based siting restrictions should be addressed in the facility licensing process and include rural child care facilities. Finally, future studies of child care facilities should include noise pollution from truck traffic since prolonged exposure to diesel truck traffic in the range of 80 dBA contributes to hearing loss and stress (8). References 1. Houston D, Ong P, Wu J, Winer A. Proximity of licensed child care facilities to near-roadway vehicle pollution. Am J Public Health. 2006;96:1611-1617. 2. Lin S, Munsie JP, Hwang SA, Fitzgerald E, Cayo MR. Childhood asthma hospitalization and residential exposure to state route traffic. Environ Res. 2002; 88:73-81. 3. Asthma in New England part II: children, a report by the New England Asthma Regional Council, 2004. Available at: http ://www.mainelung.org/ Topics /asthma_survey _results .asp. Accessed July 1, 2007. 4. The American Lung Association State of the Air: 2007 Maine. Available at: http://lungaction.org/reports/SOTA07_stateozone.html?geo_area_id=23. Accessed July 1, 2007. 5.Scorecard. Pollution Locator: Smog and Particulates: County Report. Available at http://www.scorecard.org/env- releases/cap/county.tcl?fips_county_code=23007. Accessed July 5, 2007. 6.Proposed National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Particulate Matter—DOCKET ID NUMBER EPA-HQ-OAR-2001-0017. Available at http://www.psr.org/site/DocServer/PM_Hlth_Grp_Ltr_-_FINAL.pdf?docID=621. Accessed July 10, 2007. 7. 2006 Maine Transportation Count Book. Available at http://www.maine.gov/mdot/traffic-counts/2006tc/franklin.pdf.Accessed May 21, 2007. 8.McKenzie, J., Pinger, R. Kotecki, J. (2005). An introduction to community health (5th ed). Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.